RESEDA, Calif., April 28 /PRNewswire/ -- The nonprofit Los Angeles Jewish Home announced today the opening of the Lisa and Ernest Auerbach Behavioral Health Center to serve adults 55 and over who are experiencing mental or emotional changes that require intensive treatment.
The opening of the 10-bed center comes at a time when many privately operated psychiatric units are closing or cutting their beds across Southern California. The most recent was the closing of Ventura County's only hospital inpatient program targeted at seniors.
"It is imperative to have such a facility available to the community around us given the growing need and the aging of our society," said Los Angeles Jewish Home CEO/President Molly Forrest. "Seniors are often among our most vulnerable individuals, and having a center such as ours to serve this group and their loved ones is a service we are delighted to be able to provide."
As a nationally recognized leader in geriatric care and services, the Jewish Home maintains medical and mental health research partnerships with the region's leading medical institutions, including the UCLA School of Medicine and the USC Keck School of Medicine. The knowledge gained through these partnerships is expected to better the treatment of patients in the Home's new Behavioral Center as well as lead to new models of care.
Gay Howard, administrator of the Home's Joyce Eisenberg-Keefer Medical Center where the Auerbach unit is located, said, "There are so many issues we need to be aware of with an aging population. Depression and suicidal tendencies increase with age. The historical way of dealing with these issues was simply medication, observation and transferring them out. Our goal is to now provide an opportunity to utilize highly advanced, multiple-integrated geriatric specialties including innovative activities and therapy to help patients."
The facilities of the Auerbach Behavioral Health Center include exclusively private rooms, each with its own private bathroom. The Center also employs the very latest "good-sense" advancements to promote patients' health, comfort and safety.
Forrest said, "The Auerbach Behavioral Health Center incorporates the Jewish Home's nationally acclaimed model of comprehensive, high-quality treatment by attending to the needs of the whole person -- mind, body and spirit -- in a calm, nurturing environment."
At the Auerbach Behavioral Health Center, the focus is on reducing symptoms through an integrated, multi-service approach. This involves close coordination of multiple geriatric specialties to develop, implement and review individualized treatment plans on a daily basis. Services include:
Prospective patients must have a primary psychiatric diagnosis and are admitted on a voluntary basis only. Applicants for care must also be able to participate in a treatment program where the combination of intensive therapeutic activities and interaction with staff and peers promotes healing and well-being and provides the best long-term outcomes. Further information is available by calling 818-758-5041.
Founded in 1912, the world-renowned Los Angeles Jewish Home is one of the foremost multi-level senior-living communities in the United States and the largest single-source provider of senior housing in Los Angeles. In total, the Home annually serves more than 2,200 seniors through our extraordinary continuum of services. Each year, more than 1,500 women and men are cared for in-residence on two village campuses with services including independent-living "Neighborhood Home" accommodations, residential care, skilled nursing care, acute psychiatric care, Alzheimer's disease and dementia care. Another 700 seniors are served through the Home's community-based programs, which includes Skirball Hospice and community clinics. The Home is a nonprofit organization that relies upon donations from individuals, corporations and foundations to continue its remarkable work. Further information regarding the Home can be found online at http://www.jha.org or by calling 818-757-4407.
SOURCE Los Angeles Jewish Home
